Beverly Brignoni and her boyfriend, Leslie Martinez, traveled together to the Dominican Republic on Feb. 19 for Brignoni to undergo a tummy tuck at a clinic her friends recommended. A day later, she was dead, the victim of a pulmonary embolism, the Dominican doctor told her family.

A Bronx beauty who traveled to the Dominican Republic for affordable plastic surgery died on the operating table — and now her family wants answers.

Beverly Brignoni, 29, was an upbeat and happy single mother when she flew to Santo Domingo on Feb. 19 to get a tummy tuck at a clinic her friends had recommended.

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A day later she was dead — the victim of a pulmonary embolism, the doctor told her stunned family.

"I'm still trying to understand it. I can't really comprehend that she's gone," said boyfriend Lesley Martinez, 32, who made the fateful journey alongside his girlfriend of one year.

"I was with her right up until she went into the surgery. We kissed goodbye, said we loved each other, and they wheeled her away," he said. "That was the last time I saw her."

When Martinez and Brignoni flew into Santo Domingo on the night of Feb. 19, they made a brief stop at the Vista del Jardin Medical Center, where her surgery was scheduled.

The nurses did a quick check of Brignoni's blood pressure and cleared her for a 7 a.m. start the next day, Martinez said.

The couple spent the night in the house of a woman who frequently hosted clients of the clinic. Brignoni's friends had given her the name, Martinez said.

Brignoni, who worked as a receptionist in various salons, lived with her daughter, Madison, 4, in the house she owned in the Bronx.

Brignoni poses for a selfie. She lived in the Bronx with her 4-year-old daughter, Madison. She had recently lost a lot of weight and wanted surgery to tighten things up, said her godmother Bernadette Lamboy. Brignoni was drawn to the cheap price in the Dominican Republic. (AP/Brignoni Family/AP)

"She had recently lost a lot of weight and she just wanted some surgery to tighten things up," said her godmother Bernadette Lamboy. "I can't believe this happened to her. We want to know exactly what went wrong."

Lamboy said the young mother spoke to surgeons in New York and the Dominican Republic before settling on Dr. Guillermo Lorenzo at Vista del Jardin.

She was lured by the cheap price, Lamboy said.

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Brignoni paid $6,300 to get a tummy tuck and have her backside and breasts lifted.

But at the last minute, she and her doctor decided only to do the tummy tuck and they worked out a partial refund.

Shortly after his girlfriend's surgery started, Martinez was handed her clothes and brought to a recovery room to wait for her.

When Lorenzo appeared, at 3 p.m., he brought the worst possible news.

"He said he was so sorry, that she was gone, that he had lost her," said Martinez. "He said she had an embolism and died."

Dr. Guillermo Lorenzo performed the surgery on Brignoni in the Dominican Republic.

The family has now secured a lawyer on the island and plans to sue the clinic and Lorenzo. Vista del Jardin was briefly shut down after Brignoni's death when Health Ministry officials inspected it and found bacteria and violations of bio-sanitary regulations.

The doctor did not respond to calls for comment.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control issued an alert March 7 when at least 19 women in five states developed serious wound infections involving a virulent from of bacteria over the previous year following cosmetic procedures in the Dominican Republic.